Mainframes are computing systems used mainly by large businesses and organizations for executing mission and task-critical applications (such as bulk data processing) that are often essential to the core of the business or organization. These applications often provide a competitive advantage to the organization, and thus mainframes are designed for the purposes of longevity, fault tolerance, and durability.
In addition, mainframes also offer vastly increased computing performance relative to ordinary person computers. Compared to a personal computer such as a PC, mainframes will commonly have hundreds to thousands of times as much data storage, and the capability to access, manipulate, and perform operations on such data much faster. Mainframes are designed to handle very high volumes of input and output (I/O) and emphasize throughput computing. Traditionally, mainframe designs have included several subsidiary computers (called channels or peripheral processors) which manage the I/O devices, leaving the central processing unit (CPU) free to deal only with high-speed memory. In addition, typical mainframe applications are often used to perform tasks which are essential to the core of the business operating the mainframe.
In addition, nearly all conventional mainframes also have the ability to run (or host) multiple operating systems, and thereby operate not as a single computer but as a number of virtual machines. This is most commonly achieved through the use of multiple logical partitions. Each logical partition, commonly referred to as a “LPAR,” is a subset of a computing system's hardware resources that is virtualized as a separate computer. In this role, a single mainframe can replace dozens or even hundreds of smaller servers. As a general practice, mainframes often utilize the proprietary operating system of the mainframe's manufacturer, and conventional implementations may comprise a single mainframe operating numerous instances of the same operating system. Recent developments have enabled the combination of various, disparate operating systems operating in distributed logical partitions in the same mainframe.
Unfortunately, mainframes are typically very expensive to purchase and procure. Moreover, mainframe operating systems and applications can also be very expensive to develop and/or license. Due to the relatively small number of mainframe manufacturers and software developers, mainframe consumers typically have few options beyond a mainframe manufacturer's proprietary operating system. Naturally, reliance on a single, proprietary operating system can be expensive and licensing fees for the proprietary operating system can contribute significantly to the cost of owning and operating a mainframe, as well as purchasing mainframe computing services. Moreover, these fees are almost certain to continue to grow for a mainframe consumer due to maintenance and upgrade fees. An alternative to actual ownership of mainframes is to rent mainframe computing services from a mainframe service provider. However, a service purchasing arrangement with these providers (which can be the mainframe manufacturers themselves) can often be just as expensive over time.
Unfortunately, limiting the cost of mainframe ownership and operation is difficult to achieve. Conventional approaches in response to this problem include: continuing operation under a status quo paradigm; transferring operation of the processes in the system to alternate platforms; purchasing additional software and hardware packages; and tactically managing the additional costs. However, these approaches each suffer from significant flaws. The approach of operating under a status quo paradigm will be unlikely to limit the increasing cost of mainframe ownership and operation, as dependency on commercial mainframe manufacturers and software developers persists.
Transferring operation of the processes in the system to alternate platforms consists of taking processes operating in the current platform and moving the operation of the application to an alternate platform. For example, the business or organization's proprietary applications that provide the competitive advantage may be moved to other platforms (such as servers). However, transferring operation of the processes in a system to alternate platforms can be risky and may result in additional delays, inconsistent results and unpredictable behavior. Moreover, alternate platforms may result in waste, may be similarly costly, and may require significant additional capital expenditure. In addition, use of these alternative platforms can preclude the ability to offload certain processes to other resident, specialized processors capable of faster and/or concurrent processing
Purchasing additional third party software is another approach to limiting the cost (e.g., eliminating the cost of developing proprietary software). However, this approach also eliminates the competitive advantages of proprietary applications. Moreover, this approach requires additional licensing fees and may not substantially reduce the cost of operation and/or ownership.
Tactical management of additional costs typically involves proactively controlling cost increases due to increases in volume, or limiting licensing fees to current implementations. However, this can severely affect an operation's efficacy if the operation grows, as performance may suffer from obsolete or insufficient resources and applications. Moreover, tactical management is not typically a successful long term solution as costs are not truly reduced, but rather, redistributed (e.g., as a loss in performance).